Mobile advertising, advertising through wireless phones and other mobile devices, is a new field for both wireless carriers and advertisers. Similar in form to Internet advertisements, mobile advertisements can be rendered in several varied forms, including banner ads at the top or bottom of requested pages, tagged ads, and full-page ads. Unique to mobile advertisements are SMS ads, ads within mobile games and videos, and ads that appear while a requested item of mobile content is loading. To reach all types of mobile devices, mobile advertisements can take many forms, including graphic, text-based, audio or video. With mobile devices becoming more prevalent throughout society, many advertisers have rushed into this media. Mobile advertising can provide brands, agencies, marketers, and/or vendors an efficient means to connect with consumers by directly advertising on their mobile devices.
Typically, several vendors are available to sell and service such advertisements. Mobile providers can establish a contract for a particular period of time, for example, 2-3 years, with one such vendor to supply and service their mobile advertisements. During the contract period, the selected vendor can automatically provide one or more advertisements to mobile users serviced by the mobile provider. However, if the chosen vendor underperforms, the provider is stuck with the low performing vendor for the duration of the contract. This type of conventional mobile advertising system, where providers are contractually stuck with underperforming advertisers, is both inefficient and cost prohibitive.
In addition, conventional systems employ a tedious process to add/remove advertisement vendors and/or inventory portals from the mobile network, requiring each new vendor or portal to connect individually to existing portals or vendors. For example, when changing vendors, providers must connect each new vendor with each portal of the mobile network such that the new vendor can access the network's inventory. This makes changing vendors or portals and/or adding new vendors or portals a complex, costly and time-consuming process.